The first Horse hair brush that I had purchased was a Vie-Long Sardinero 13800. After less than a month it had developed a doughnut hole the size of Texas...okay, maybe not that big, but as you can see from the pics, bad enough.

I had wanted to re-knot this almost immediately, but I decided to spend my money on a Semogue boar instead. Well it has just bugged me for this brush to be sitting in a drawer, so I felt the time had come to get a knot for it.

I had purchased a knot that was too small, so after talking to Gary (GD Carrington) I decided to go with a 22mm knot based on the size of the opening.

Well here are the before and after pics. I have to laugh, as I had no idea this thing would bloom as large as it did. I have not used it yet, but it will get the inaugural shave tomorrow.

Sorry for bad quality of this image but I was so upset by the doughnut hole, I really did not care if it was in focus or not.
Another angle of that large doughnut hole
The knot easily came out after following Gary's steaming method.
New 22mm TGN Super Silvertip Pre-Bloom
The knot after the building a lather, allowing it sit all day, and then rinsing tonight.
The mushroom head of this crazy thing....it's huge.

I reknotted a Hoffritz beer barrel using a TGN Super Silvertip in 22.. I had to enlarge the hole a little, but once done.. it bloomed much the same as yours..

Sad to say, it's a little too floppy for me and I have considered pulling the knot and starting over. I actually added a rubber o-ring to the knot just above the collar and it helped a bit, but it would take about three o-rings to get this knot where I would want it..